NAU Horizons Summer Concert Series features Phoenix Symphony Chamber Players

July 11, 2019

This weekend, five members of the Phoenix Symphony Chamber Players will perform “The Three B’s” as part of Northern Arizona University’s Horizons Summer Concert Series. The performance of music by Bach, Beethoven and Brahms will take place at 4 p.m. July 14 in Kitt Recital Hall.

The concert will include a rendition of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Trio Sonata in G Major, BWV 1038,” which dates back to the 1730s—a predominantly choral time period. This rare instrumental chamber composition is considered by some scholars to be the work of Bach’s oldest son, Carl Philipp Emmanuel; perhaps a compositional exercise for his father.

Also featured will be “Trio in G Major, WoO 37” composed by Ludwig van Beethoven between 1786 and 1790 when he was a teenager. Its unusual scoring reflected the musical resources of the wealthy Westerholt-Gysenberg family: Baron Ludolf Friedrich Adolf von Boenen zu Berge, bassoon; his son Friedrich Otto, flute; and daughter Maria Anna Wilhelmine, piano, who was one of Beethoven’s tutees. This trio remained unpublished in Beethoven’s lifetime.

Eight decades later, Johannes Brahms wrote a soaring trio for violin, horn and piano as an elegy to his mother, Christiane, who died in 1865. His other musical memorial was the “German Requiem.” Originally designed for natural horn, an instrument particularly suited to the authentic folk songs that Brahms incorporated in this score, this performance will showcase the lesser-known version for cello.

The Phoenix Symphony Chamber Players feature Brian Gordon, flute; Douglas Brown, bassoon; Anna Kim Kazepides, violin; Yeil Park, cello; and Olga Gorelik, piano.

Admission to the Horizons Concert Series is $22.50 for adults and $15 for seniors and NAU faculty and staff. Concerts are free for NAU students with ID and children under 17. Tickets can be purchased online, at the Central Ticket Office in the University Union or by calling (928) 523-5661. Tickets also are available at the door with a $2 surcharge. Free event parking is available in Lot P13.

There will be a post-performance reception in the atrium.

Cheyenne Jarrette